And did finding PartDesign workbench represent a real issue to you. Being a new user?

The first time I opened FC it was. I did not know wether that was what I needed. Maybe I was looking for the Part workbench and not PartDesign. Maybe I had to open the sketcher before I could extrude a part... I was simply not sure on how to proceed.

Part vs PartDesign debate is an interesting one indeed. Basically such debate doesn't have much to do with existence of modules like Ship, FEM, Arch, Path ... in FreeCAD by default. There likely was a (slim) chance Part workbench would get superseded by PartDesign (NEXT) workbench. But that more or less didn't happen, as both serve a different purpose now. In addition a lot of functionality and projects out there depend on Part workbench. Therefore Part vs PartDesign debate will likely still be here in foreseeable future. New users therefore do need to grasp on why both exist, that much is true.

Because of FreeCAD's Workbench Philosophy, that represent several parallel workflows. As beginner, you'll find several paths but you do not know what to follow.
It is the same phenomenon with Ansys Workbench that also uses workbenches structure. At beginning it is a bit confuse. For that reason is important a well design Start Workbench to orientate people.

::bitacovir::
===================================One must be absolutely modern.
Arthur Rimbaud (A Season in Hell -1873)